title: Current status of Langmuir monolayer degradation of polymeric biomaterials.
abstract: Langmuir monolayer degradation (LMD) experiments with polymers possessing outstanding biomedical application potential yield information regarding the kinetics of their hydrolytic or enzymatic chain scission under well-defined and adjustable degradation conditions. A brief review is given of LMD investigations, including the author's own work on 2-dimensional (2D) polymer systems, providing chain scission data, which are not disturbed by simultaneously occurring transport phenomena, such as water penetration into the sample or transport of scission fragments out of the sample. A knowledge-based approach for the description and simulation of polymer hydrolytic and enzymatic degradation based on a combination of fast LMD experiments and computer simulation of the water penetration is briefly introduced. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Potsdam, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Potsdam, Germany. jreiche@rz.uni-potsdam.de
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reiche
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kratz
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lendlein
mesh_terms: D020341:Absorbable Implants; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007700:Kinetics; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011108:Polymers